


Part II

by theodorelupin



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Photographer, Canon Compliant, Canon Het Relationship, Canonical Character Death, Cute Dad Harry, F/M, Photographer!Teddy, Photography
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-13
Updated: 2014-10-13
Packaged: 2018-02-20 23:32:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2447135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theodorelupin/pseuds/theodorelupin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Teddy always loved hearing stories about his parents. Harry thinks it's time he makes his own stories. </p><p>(Or, in which Teddy is a photographer)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Part II

A door slowly creaked open, revealing a young boy, about the age of six laying on soft carpet. 

"Teddy?" The man behind the door whispered, smiling down at the child on the floor.

"Harry!" The boy squealed, jumping up from his spot on the shag carpet, his hair turning a vivid blue.

"I got off work early, what should we do today, Ted-Ted?"

"Can we look at the pictures again?" He asked, looking up at Harry with wide eyes.

Harry chuckled and went to find a tattered book of photographs.

\---------------

The first time Harry showed him these pictures was only a year earlier. Of course, Teddy had seen pictures before, the walls of Harry and Ginny's little cottage were full of them. The halls were adorned with sweet photos of the three of them and Ginny's many brothers. There were even some of Teddy's parents, glimpses into the lives of a man with scars crisscrossing his slender face, and pink haired woman wearing a wry grin.

But the ones in the book were special. Harry had sat him down one day, photo album in hand, and leaned over Teddy's shoulder, whispering stories in his ear.

"That was taken at my parents' wedding"

"Who's that man next to your mum?"

"That's your dad, Teddy."

Teddy was in love. As Harry whispered anecdotes, Teddy grazed fingertips over each photo, marveling at the way they so clearly captured every story his godfather told him.

\-----------------

As Teddy got older, he no longer needed his godfather to tell him the stories. He knew each one by heart. And soon, he began to make up his own stories. To him, the photographs were alive. They were doorways to new worlds. They could take him anywhere. Including the past.

Harry rarely joined him in looking at the pictures any more. And Teddy knew not to ask; while the pictures and the stories gave Teddy a glimpse into the lives of those before him, for Harry they were little more than a reminder of the life he was never allowed to have. Besides, Teddy was old enough to do it himself. Looking at the pictures was a solitary activity. He flip through them for hours imagining he was there, imagining he could meet these people just once.

But there were days when Harry would come home from work and find a crying Nymphadora Tonks on Teddy's bed. And Harry would look at this ghost of his old friend, take the book down from the shelf, and wrap his slim arms around Teddy. And they would look at the pictures, Harry leaning over his shoulder to whisper in his ear. Just like when he was a child. And he would be okay again.

\------------------

"What's this?" Victoire asks, as she pulls the photo album off the bookshelf on Teddy's room.

"Oh it's just-"

"Are these your parents?" Victoire asks before he can reply, a smile playing across her face. "Will you tell me about them?"

And that's when Teddy knows he loves her.

\--------------------

Despite James Sirius's jokes about him getting expelled, Teddy graduates from Hogwarts with flying colors. His friends start Auror training, and internships at St. Mungo's and they all have these plans and jobs and dreams and it seems like they have their whole lives mapped at.

Teddy doesn't know how to go forward. He's spent his whole life looking back.

\-----------------

It's a summer night in June. Teddy finds himself sprawled out on the roof of the Potters'. The sky is full of stars, and he stares at them blankly, the uncertainty of his future weighing upon him. Harry climbs up to find him. As they lay side by side, Harry points out the constellations to him, never once stopping to pester Teddy for answers. 

Finally, when Harry runs out of names of stars, his voicing cracking as he points to a certain twinkling light in Orion's belt, Teddy finds the words. He tells Harry everything. About his fears. About his confusion. About the uncertainty of it all. Teddy has always loved the certainty in the stories. In the pictures.

"I think it's time you start making your own stories" Harry says, his eyes locked onto the brightest star in the sky. "Here," he says, pulling something out of his pocket, "Use it well."

\-----------------

Teddy turns the simple polaroid camera over in his hands. And he smiles for the first time in weeks. 

\-------------------

"Stop! Teddy seriously put that way!" Victoire shrieks, laughing as he continues snapping photo after photo of her smile. 

"Can't you stay still for one minute?"

"Teddy Lupin, when have you ever known me to do that?" She shoots back, and in a flash, she's running into the night, dancing her way though the woods by Grandma Weasley's house.

"Catch me if you can!" She shouts over her shoulder.

"I always do." He whispers, and runs after her, camera in tow.

\--------------

On September 1st, he kisses Victoire goodbye. 

"Just a year, and then I graduate." She says softly, spotting the pout on his lips.

"I'm counting on it." He whispers back.

He finds himself back at the Potters', he passes Lily Luna in the hall and sees the way the light reflects off her hair, as she twirls, lost in a world only known to herself. Without thinking, he grabs his camera, and snaps a picture. 

\-------------

He tells Harry that he still doesn't know what he's supposed to do with his life.

Harry replies, "You're pretty good with that camera." And with a gentle ruffle of Teddy's ever changing hair, he's left the room before Teddy can say a word.

\----------------

Teddy finds himself looking at photographs again, but this time they aren't of his parents. They're of Victoire.

Developing his film, he sees his summer come back to life. Albus and his sudden infatuation with muggle novels. Lily Luna's determination to learn to fly better than her brothers. James Sirius and his unmistakable grin. And Victoire.

The way she throws her head back and laughs, like she doesn't have a care in the world. The way her nose scrunches up when she smiles. The devilish glint in her eye as she teases him. 

The way her eyelashes flutter when she's falling asleep. The way body curves and rises and falls.

He sees what Harry means about him being good with a camera.

\---------------

On Monday, he sees an ad in a muggle newspaper requesting a photographer. 

He smiles, and circles it thick black marker.

\----------------

After his pictures from one event or another end up in a muggle newspaper, he gets a call from someone who runs an art studio. They want his photographs to be displayed in the gallery. Aunt Hermione helps him pick out a suit.

They comment on the way his photographs come alive. One critic makes an offhand remark that he thought one of the photos was moving, and Victoire can barely conceal her laughter.

One of them asks him what the theme of the collection was.

He meets Harry's eyes across the room and smiles. "I decided it was time to make my own stories."

\-------------

On the way home, he stops at a shop in muggle London, and picks up a blank photo album. 

He puts it next to the old one on his shelf. On the spine, in messy script, he scrawls "part two".

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you all enjoyed. This is the first fic I've written since middle school (dark times), so feedback is much appreciated.


End file.
